(LU. 7, 44)
SIMEON is a benevolent Pharisee, deferential toward Jesus, but icy and
dignified.
The woman is a sinner, a former prostitute with whom Simeon is
disgusted; yes, he sees her, all right! He knows her!
It is as when I ask someone: Do you know the ocean? and he then
answers: I should say so! I have been standing in the downs watching
the waves; I have seen them soaring to the height of houses while the
wind whipped their foam into my eyes. Yes, I have seen the ocean--I
know it, all right!
Then I answer: Pardon me, my dear--but if that is all you have seen,
you do not know the ocean. You have not _seen_ it while it lay calm
and glittering and smooth like a mirror in the sunshine, nor have you
_noticed_ it when its surface was all alive with ripples, and when it
roared with that hollow sound that betrays the presence of violent
undertows far beneath the surface.
Thus with Simeon. That which he had seen and heard of this woman, had
been brought to him, like the wind-swept foam of the sea, in the storm
of evil tongues, and then he says: I should think I know her, indeed! I
know to what kind she belongs. I see her--a low-down, vulgar and lewd
woman!
But the undertow in the depth of her soul he had not seen; the heaving
sighs from within he had not heard. He did not know how often she had
been tossing restlessly upon her couch in moaning and anguish, nor how
firmly she had been clutched by the wound-inflicting bonds of vice, nor
how strongly she had tugged at them in order that she might set herself
free.
And that was not the only thing Simeon did not see. The wind-swept foam
had veiled his eye so he could not see what was really good in her at
that moment despite her appearance stamped with sin. _There were bitter
tears of repentance. There was warmth of heart. There was love for
Jesus._
Seest thou this woman? Seest thou this man?
How do you look at the people among whom you live? Do you notice only
the uncouth exterior? Do you listen only to that which is carried to
you by the wind of the evil tongues? Or do you listen to the undertow
in the depths of the heart, to the heaving sighs, the hollow roaring
from within?
The famous Italian sculptor, Michelangelo, once stood before a large
coarsely chiseled slab of stone which he surveyed carefully, and with
increasing pleasure, from all angles. "There is nothing extraordinary
about this stone," a friend remarked, "what peculiarity do you notice?"
"What do I notice?" Michelangelo answered, "I see an angel within this
stone, and I must release it."
It may be that our Lord Jesus did not exactly see an angel within this
woman--nor does He see one in you and in me--but beneath the rough
surface He saw a human soul created in the image of His Heavenly Father
and after His likeness, and He said: I will release it!
* * * * *
_By looking at the undertow in the depths of the soul and by listening
to the heaving sighs from within, you will be enabled to look at your
fellow-beings with ever-increasing interest and--delight!